Lean psychology and the theories of “Thinking, Fast and Slow”

The purpose of this paper is to develop insights about the psychological factors that contribute to lean’s success as a holistic and adaptive system.

The authors use the best-selling book “Thinking, Fast and Slow” (TFAS) (2011) by Nobel-prize winner Daniel Kahneman to provide a familiar lens for readers who might not otherwise be familiar with the psychology theories that are used in this paper to study lean conceptually. With this approach, the paper sheds light on psychological factors that tie together many of the philosophies, principles and practices of lean.

The paper shows how lean’s philosophies, principles and practices provide a synergistic and self-reinforcing system that drives employee thinking and actions. TFAS characterizes thought processes as “fast System 1 thinking” that relies on intuition and “slow System 2 thinking” that is more rational and logical. Lean psychology eliminates waste and adds customer value by supporting, enhancing and taking advantage of beneficial fast thinking and motivating and imposing appropriate slow thinking.

The authors develop the concept of lean psychology to describe the relationship between psychology theories and lean. By applying lean psychology, organizations can go beyond superficially adopting a checklist of tools and techniques to more fully take advantage of lean and improve their operations performance.